Undermining an Enemy’s Will to Resist
Psychological warfare involves tactics intended to manipulate one’s opponents, or enemies. This includes the dissemination of propaganda and disinformation to undermine the morale of enemy forces and erode their ability to resist.
Psywar
In the military terms like ‘psywar’ (psychological warfare), or ‘psyops’ (psychological operations), have also been known as ‘winning hearts and minds’, political warfare and propaganda. Normally, military intelligence would distinguish between Psyops Own Forces, to build up the morale of one’s own people, Psyops Enemy Forces, (to break down the morale of both enemy soldiers and their civilian population) and Psyops Local Population (to win over the hearts and minds of those in the operational area).
Aimed at Emotions and Values
Psyops recognise that they need to target their audience’s belief system, value system, emotions, motives, reasoning and behaviour. Some countries have resorted to false flag, or blackops, to discredit the enemy forces by terrorist operations, which can be attributed to the enemy.
Using Media Technology to Target the Population
Psychological warfare is no longer limited to soldiers. Targets of pysops include civilians, groups, churches, organisations and governments. Technology and media are increasingly being used to effect political changes desired by the enemy, or revolutionary forces.
Victory Through Media Manipulation
The Vietnamese commander famously declared that they did not win the war on the battlefield, but on the campuses and in the living rooms of the United States of America, through television coverage of American protests against the war.
Not Beaten – Betrayed
The Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith, declared: “We were never beaten by our enemies, we were betrayed by our friends.”
Total War
President P.W. Botha of South Africa tried to warn the South African population of the Total War which was targeting every aspect of life in South Africa. While the mass media derided this, history has proven President P.W. Botha correct. South Africa was subjected to a total war where, although the South African Defence Force was spectacularly successful on the battlefield, on the border of South West Africa and in pre-emptive strikes into communist controlled Angola, the country was undermined by subversion, sedition and sabotage.
Sedition Subverts Society
On the university campuses, in the classrooms, in the media, on the streets, insidious sedition subverted the public. The ANC could justly be described as “the most spectacularly unsuccessful revolutionary movement” in the world, with not a single victory to their name in over 30 years of “armed struggle.” However, their allies in the South African Council of Churches, in the universities, editors of many newspapers, Hollywood, through sports boycotts, disinvestment campaigns, sanctions and general psychological warfare, economic warfare and political warfare waged by the Soviet Block, the European Economic Community, the Organisation of African Unity, the British Foreign Office, the US State Department and the United Nations gradually wore down much of the population to where they were willing to settle for a negotiated settlement with the defeated ANC. In exchange for international sports, cricket, rugby and participation in the Olympic games.
Threats and Temptations
This was something of the carrot and the stick approach. The sticks included economic sanctions, disinvestment, boycotts and bans, riots, sabotage, bombings and sporadic acts of terrorism at home and increasing condemnation from abroad. The carrots were the opportunity to participate in international rugby tours, cricket tours and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Battle for the Mind
In psyops, propagandists target adversaries by seeking to destroy, by psychological means, the morale and confidence of their targeted opponent to the extent that they begin to doubt the validity of their beliefs, values and actions.
Unprecedented Mass Communication Media Opportunities to Manipulate Emotions
Modern mass communication techniques have allowed unprecedented opportunity for foreign forces to engage in direct communication with a targeted/enemy population. In recent times the internet allows for campaigns of disinformation and misinformation, including false flags and agent provocateurs to seek to discredit, or character assassinate, those whom they target.
Capture the Culture
The Frankfurt School of Cultural Marxism recognised that while World War One and the military defeat of Czarist Russia provided a unique opportunity for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, violent revolution was unlikely to succeed anywhere in Western Europe. Therefore, Marxist leaders, such as Antonio Gramsci, proposed The Termite Strategy to erode from the inside the cultural institutions of the West.
The Termite Strategy
Just as a termite could hollow out the inside of a wooden building so that even fresh coats of paint on the outside would not save the structure from collapsing in time, so too Marxists need to work for slow, gradual, long-term, culminative revolution through infiltrating the five cultural carrying and culture transforming institutions of Western society:Education institutions; News Media; Entertainment industry; Religious institutions and Political institutions. Gramsci’s slogan was to “capture the culture!”
Subvert Christian Civilisation through Obscenity, Pornography and Blasphemy
Herbert Marcuse, another of the Frankfurt School Marxists, emphasised the importance of subverting the culture through obscenity, blasphemy, perversion and pornography. He advocated using swear words as “verbal grenades” to attack bourgeoisie Christian society. Obscenity and blasphemy are weapons in psychological warfare to break down Christian civilisation.
War on History
As Karl Marx declared: “The first battlefield is the rewriting of History!”
George Orwell observed: “The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
Culture War
Those who understand Marxism, particularly the Cultural Marxism of the Frankfurt School, the Gramsci Strategy and the role of obscenity in Marcuse’s Revolutionary Strategy will immediately recognise where the violence and campaign to topple statues and monuments and spray paint obscenities on the walls, comes from. Straight out of Mao Tse Tung’s Cultural Revolution and the public humiliation/shaming/apology scenes were exactly how Mao Tse Tung publicly shamed/sidelined and humiliated traditional leaders in China’s Revolution.
Prophetic Warnings
George Orwell warned us in his prophetic novel 1984 of Newspeak, Thought Police, Thought Crimes, where opponents would be vaporised, made unpeople and disappear down the memory hole. Aldous Huxley warned us in his prophetic book, Brave New World, of a future sophisticated society where people are distracted by endless entertainment stimulation and subdued by drugs, to be easily manipulated by the New World Order state.
Indoctrinated, Distracted and Depressed
John Dewey, one of the authors of the Humanist Manifesto of 1933, was a pioneer of secular humanist state education. We should be able to recognise how much of the entertainment industry defiles and degrades us, how much of the news media discourages and distracts us. So much in this society today, including music and the arts, depresses and disgraces us. Through the Stockholm Syndrome, many are cowered into co-dependency on their very abusers. “That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” Ephesians 4:14
Deteriorated, Degraded and Divided
Cultural Marxism has deteriorated society. Critical Race Theory has divided society. “Confuse, divide and conquer.” Most of Hollywood entertainment degenerates and degrades. The Gramsci Termite Strategy has corrupted and rotted most institutions of the West. The Marcusian subvert and corrupt the culture campaign has been all too successful. Not only is perversion tolerated, it is promoted and celebrated. “But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” Hebrews 10:39
Degradation, Disintegration and Defeat
We are seeing communism in the classroom and a war on our historic monuments in the streets. Discouragement. Distraction. Depression. Dependency. Deterioration. Division. Degeneration. Degradation. Disintegration. All equal defeat. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” Ephesians 5:11
Discernment and Discretion
We need to understand the times and know what God’s people should do. History matters. Truth matters. We need to get back to the Bible. We need discernment. We need to disconnect from the world indoctrination, distraction and disinformation media. Support independent and alternative sources of news media and entertainment. Exercise discretion.
Reclaim the Culture for Christ
Get back to the classic Christian books that built up civilisation and boycott the modern trash that is breaking it down. Home education using solid Bible-based, Christ-centered, God-honouring textbooks will be the single most strategic and important foundation that can be laid for reclaiming our culture for Christ.
Examples of Excellence
Some of the antidote to the psyops, gaslighting, guilt manipulation, Stockholm Syndrome, cultural Marxism indoctrination are the examples of excellence we can learn in Christian history. Frontline Fellowship’s contribution to this colossal conflict for Christian civilisation includes: Victorious Christians – Who Changed the World; The Greatest Century of Reformation; The Greatest Century of Missions; Sketches from South African History (also available in Afrikaans); Slavery, Terrorism and Islam – The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat and to get back to the Bible, Old Testament Survey and New Testament Survey.
Learn to Discern
Visit Henry Morton Stanley School of Christian Journalism Facebook page and www.hmsschoolofchristianjournalism.org. website for alternative Christian news media perspectives.
Clean the Screen
Visit www.MovieGuide.org to evaluate films. It is important to know before you go, to learn to discern and to clean the screen. Boycott the bad and support the good, uplifting and excellent.
Understanding the Times
Dr. David Noebel’s Understanding the Times is the single best textbook explaining the different competing worldviews and the Biblical response. This has also been summarised in a more compact book, The Battle for Truth, by Dr. David Noebel.
Firm Foundations for our Families, Faith and Future
Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter are a vital strategic antidote to the secular humanism evolutionary foundations of the cultural revolution facing us today.
Effective Evangelism
Effective Evangelistic tools to seek to win our world to Christ can be found from Living Waters, Way of the Master Ten Commandments based resources: www.LivingWatersAfrica.co.za. “The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul…” Psalm 19:7
Apply the Lordship of Christ to All Areas of Life
Frontline Fellowship’s Great Commission Course and Biblical Worldview Summit are intensive training programmes for those who want to apply the Lordship of Christ to all areas of life and make disciples of the nations. For practical principles for every area of life, see the Ten Commandments – God’s Perfect Law of Liberty(also available in Afrikaans) and Biblical Principles for Africa(also available in Afrikaans and French).
Resources to Equip and Empower You
You can access many of the lectures and presentations of previous Biblical Worldview Summits and Great Commission Courses on the www.FrontlineMissionSA.org website in our audio and video galleries.
Always Be Ready to Give an Answer to Anyone Who Asks You
To counter many of the attacks made on the Faith, you will find Answering Skeptics, a useful resource with battle-tested, factual and Scriptural responses to 14 common attacks on the Faith.
Stand Up, Step Out and Fight the Good Fight of Faith
Great is He who is in us than him who is in the world. Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from us. We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus who loved us. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1
